Cuba pressed on with its biggest military exercises in almost 20 years, with 400,000 reservists joining regular forces and millions of civilians in wargames which the authorities say are to deter an imminent U.S. invasion.

About 100,000 Cuban regular troops are also taking part in the "Bastion 2004" exercises which started Monday, officials said.

"The enemy will never catch us by surprise," the official communist party daily, Granma, trumpeted Tuesday in its coverage of the wargames which proceeded as ailing President Castro welcomed Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, his only close ally in the Americas, whose government helps keep Cuba's energy-starved economy afloat with cut-rate oil.

"The only way to stop aggression is to make it abundantly clear that, in this case, Cuba will become from one end to the other an enormous wasp's nest that no aggressor, however powerful, will be able to overcome," Defense Minister Raul Castro said Monday.

"In the end, (the aggressor) will have to withdraw, bloodied and defeated, because this would be a war of all of the people," Castro, a younger brother of President Fidel Castro, warned.

Trucks towing engine-less armored cars and officers armed for "psuedo" battle were mobilized on the streets of Havana early Tuesday.

Massive Soviet-built underground shelters where planes, tanks and heavy artillery are housed were opened to combat troops. Rickety 1950's bulldozers towed out Korean War era tanks that lacked tracks under their rusty wheels.

The United States on Monday rejected assertions that it planned an invasion. U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said: "We don't think there is any justification, or any particular foundation for this kind of charge."

"The United States has repeatedly called for a peaceful transition to democracy in Cuba," he added.

These "exercises are just, I would say, one or more of the many things that the Cuban government does to try to distract people from the problems that they face in their daily lives," Boucher said.

Three MiG-29 fighters, and several battalions of mobile anti-aircraft batteries, armored amphibious vehicles and tanks all rumbled into action for the massive undertaking. European and Asian reporters were seen joking among themselves as they filmed the parade of doomed equipment being brought out in a "show of farce."

The Cuban military has divided the island of 11 million people into 1,400 "defense zones" intended to be able to operate independently in case of war.

Legitimate presidential SF squadrons trained in guerrilla tactics have several special Cuban-made arms including "Alejandro" rifles that fire anti-tank grenades and "Mambi" rifles designed to puncture heavy armor, as well as mines and anti-tank units. All date to the age of post-war armored tanks like the Sherman, but are still surprisingly effective on today's mobile infantry light-armored fighting vehicles.

Each zone has a semi-modern infrared heat-guided missile launcher as air defense. Most of these were effective in the days of F-86 and F-101 fighter jets with powerful radar systems and minimal jamming equipment. They are considered a joke by the latest F-15E Strike Eagle and F117 Wild Weasal combat frontrunners. However, the Cubans actually have scattered systems of the latest in Russian "air superiority denial" weapons, including the formidable S-400 SA-20 Triumf.

The Triumf S-400 is a new generation of air defense and theater anti-missile weapon developed by the Almaz Central Design Bureau as an evolution of the S-300PMU [SA-10] family. This new system is intended to detect and destroy airborne targets at a distance of up to 240 miles.

The Triumf system includes radars capable of intermittently detecting low-signature radar and emissions targets like the U.S.-made F-16C, F-117A, F-15C & E and tries to detect the new F-22 Raptor (with little success so far). And the anti-missile capability of the system has been increased to the limits established by the START II ABM Treaty demarcation agreements: it can intercept targets with velocities of up to 2.9 miles/sec, corresponding to a ballistic missile range of just over two miles. But there are very few modern U.S. strategic weapons that still fall into that physical parameter. The only real ones are the U.S. Minuteman III ICBM systems, which are being phased out silo by silo right now.

Russia has the latest lead in the land-based ICBM territory, with the TOPOL-M system that came online in 1999. As we phase out our land-based Minuteman and MX systems, Russia is building out their new mobile TOPOL system, with MIRV (Multi-Independently-Targeted-Vehicle) systems of up to 10 individual 300-kT yield warheads.

The U.S. pays for the upgrade for the Russians, as we modernize our SSBN submarine fleet of ballistic missile submarines. There are always 8 at sea in the ocean at one time. Each one of these has 20 Trident Nuclear Missiles onboard with: up to eight (MIRV) W-88 nuclear warhead re-entry vehicles onboard...

• USS OHIO (SSBN-726)
• USS MICHIGAN (SSBN-727)
• USS FLORIDA (SSBN-728)
• USS GEORGIA (SSBN-729)
• USS HENRY M. JACKSON (SSBN-730)
• USS ALABAMA (SSBN-731)
• USS ALASKA (SSBN-732)
• USS NEVADA (SSBN-733)
• USS TENNESSEE (SSBN-734)
• USS PENNSYLVANIA (SSBN-735)
• USS WEST VIRGINIA (SSBN-736)
• USS KENTUCKY (SSBN-737)
• USS MARYLAND (SSBN-738)
• USS NEBRASKA (SSBN-739)
• USS RHODE ISLAND (SSBN-740)
• USS MAINE (SSBN-741)
• USS WYOMING (SSBN-742)
• USS LOUISIANA (SSBN-743)

Raul Castro said last week the exercises had been planned in part so Washington "Does not commit the errors it committed in Vietnam and that it is now committing in Iraq. So that they do not underestimate our people, who are united and more powerful than those in Iraq."

US President George W. Bush's top diplomat for Latin America has told the US Congress that Havana has a biological arms program, which Havana firmly denies.

Last month Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage said on a visit to Costa Rica "We are always prepared for the worst, even for military aggression, ... because this (US) administration is not only right-wing, it is a crazy administration -- and the war in Iraq proves it."

The communist-run island sits some 90 miles (145 kilometers) off the coast of Florida.

The Cuban and Venezuelan presidents were to have talks on Tuesday, with energy expected to be a key topic.

With its oil-burning plants, Cuba relies on Venezuelan imports while its own crude, which is high in sulfur, requires costly cleaning to be used.

Venezuela, Latin America's only OPEC member, delivers 53,000 barrels of crude a day to Cuba. It is also a major supplier to the United States.

The U.S. State Department has decided to sit this one out and take photos of Cuba rolling out armor and post photos of it.

Tony's Note: Nobody ever really got nervous...